Field
The invention is in the field of pipe couplings to connect two pipes or hoses together or to connect a pipe to a valve or other fitting, each having shoulders, grooves, or flanges in their end portions.
State of the Art
Inventor holds U.S. Pat. No. 8,474,880 which shows an arcuate snap coupler joining two unfixed separable face to face flanges where one of the hinges of the snap coupler is positioned between the face to face flanges pivotally attaching an end of the coupler to a fastener bolt which extends between the face to face flanges and through the hinge. Said two flanges are separated by a removable partitioner situated in the interior inside of the coupling body. The invented versatile coupler has an inner single piece cylindrical base body, where each arcurate coupling member with its opposite hinges (made of a cylindrical sleeve) is pivotally held to the cylindrical base body in rotatable position by means of opposite face to face truncated flanges by means of bolts which extend through the face to face opposite openings through said truncated flanges. The invented coupler is also provided an alternate hinge at each end of the coupler (where hinge is made of a linear angle plate reversed in the direction of the center of the coupler), thus two opposite adjacent ends of two couplers of invented coupling can also be fastened (connected) with a holding link enveloping the alternate angle plates. The invented coupling has distinct advantages to make pipe to pipe or pipe to a valve connection having shoulders, grooves, or flanges in their end portions. From here on words flanges, shoulders, and grooves of pipes and valves will be used as synonyms and the word pipe will include hoses, valves, and other fittings or items to be joined to pipes or joined together.